Facebook Rolls Out Android SDK Update With Improved Sharing and API

Facebook released an update for its Android SDK today, bringing it up to speed with the current iOS SDK in an effort to increase its relevance in the Google Play Store ecosystem. Today’s update is the first for the Facebook Android SDK since December, and brings improvements to the API, in-app sharing and a redesigned login UI.

Chris Lang, a software engineer at the company, announced the news today in a blog post on the Facebook developers page, highlighting several key improvements. Developers will now be able to enable easy Facebook sharing within their apps with a single line of code through Share Dialogue, meaning users won’t need to log-in every time before posting in-app updates to the social network. Developers can also easily integrate Open Graph into their apps, and loading Facebook on Android devices should be faster as well.

Facebook continues to push the importance of mobile in an effort to boost both its relevance and monetary gains. Until today, Facebook’s iOS SDK was miles ahead of its Android counterpart, with 87 percent of the top grossing iOS apps offering Facebook integration compared to just 73 percent for Android.

Considering Google’s clear global dominance with over 80 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, according to recent reports, it’s no surprise that Facebook is pushing its service on Android developers. It’s just surprising it took the company this long to do it.